The Center for Family Life, whose latest co-op launch is a soccer classes clinic, was recognized with the NYC Innovative Nonprofit Award this week. (Photo via the Center for Family Life)

A Brooklyn non-profit that helps develop worker-run cooperatives to help immigrants build their own small businesses is one of two groups recognized last week at the first-ever NYC Innovative Nonprofit Awards, designed to identify new ideas to reduce poverty.

These awards “are a wonderful way to highlight the brilliant work happening in our communities by nonprofit organizations,” said Commissioner Fatima Shama of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs in a press release. “I’m delighted that Center for Family Life’s Cooperative Development Project has been recognized for energizing and growing the immigrant entrepreneurial spirit through their cooperative project.”

The $20,000 first place was awarded to Green City Force’s Clean Energy Corps, a program that helps young New York City Housing Authority residents find employment or go to college.

The prize is funded by Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and awarded by the NYC Center for Economic Opportunity, a city program that supports new and more effective approaches to reducing poverty.

“These organizations have proven records of improving lives in their communities, helping set New Yorkers on a path toward greater economic mobility,” Bloomberg said.

The Center for Family Life, a program of the SCO Family of Services, has sponsored and developed half a dozen worker-owned co-ops since 2006, three of which have become successful enterprises. Their newest cooperative is a soccer co-op which hopes to provide soccer training lessons, said SCO spokeswoman Sharman Stein.

Headquartered in the back of a small supermarket in Dalton, GA, the Coalición de Líderes Latinos de Georgia (CLILA) has served the area’s Hispanic community for 13 years, Mundo Hispánico reports. CLILA offers English and citizenship classes and DACA application help, among other legal and community services. The coalition was founded in 2006 by Mexican immigrant América Gruner, who sought to mobilize the area’s large Hispanic population (mostly working in the carpet industry) against anti-immigrant measures but found that many were not eligible to vote because they didn’t apply for citizenship, or didn’t speak the language. Link to original story →

The number of Puerto Rican women receiving benefits from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) dropped by 43 percent in the past five years, El Vocero reports. The numbers reflect a childbirth drop partially caused by the Zika virus scare, during which many women avoided pregnancy, but the main cause is the mass emigration of young families away from the island. The decrease in the federal program of recipients has also hit businesses that provide WIC-funded foods: 18 percent of them have closed, and the rest have been forced to diversify their operations. Link to original story →

An investigation by El Nuevo Día shows the “extreme decay” of San Juan, Puerto Rico’s capital, as the municipal government reduced its contractual commitments almost by half compared to 2013. As residents complain of crumbling roads, criminality and lack of cleaning services, the city has had a population loss of more than 90,000 residents in the past 10 years. The loss in municipal income has resulted in a $183 million debt in spite of a $73 million budget cut. The problem is exacerbated by non-payments the Government Development Bank for Puerto Rico and the city’s difficulties in borrowing money. Link to original story →

Pro-immigrant organizations in Georgia expressed relief and surprise as Republican Gov. Brian Kemp emerged as an unlikely ally this week, Mundo Hispánico reports. Kemp abolished a board investigating immigration law violations which has been accused of illegally harassing immigrant communities. Kemp also vetoed the SB15 bill, requiring Georgia schools to investigate students for “suspicious activities” and create “school safety coaches,” which activists feared would target minority youths. “This is definitely a victory for us,” said Adelina Nicholls, of the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (GLAHR). “You have your ups and downs but this triumph motivates us to keep going.”
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